Protecting Your Personal Information with DUO

Protecting Your Personal Information with DUO

Friday, October 27, 2017

Dear University Faculty and Staff Members,

As a new part of USD’s continuing commitment to protecting your personal information, Information Technology Services will be introducing two-factor authentication (2FA, for short) for accessing various campus systems, including Oracle, Banner, MySanDiego, Google e-mail accounts, VPN, etc. Two-factor authentication enhances the security of your USDOne credentials (something you know) by using a secondary confirmation of your identity with your phone, tablet, or other device (something you have). You may have already seen 2FA used with your online banking or other sensitive services as it is the most effective method of preventing account takeover, helping to protect both you and the University community.

You may not be aware, there are still members of the USD community who continue to relinquish their credentials to thieves who send well-crafted phishing emails. Once a password is relinquished, it is relatively easy for phishers to gain access to individual’s personal information. In July of this year, we had a group of faculty and staff who nearly had their paychecks transferred to rogue bank accounts because of passwords that were relinquished through successful phishing emails. Their personal banking Electronic Funds Transfer information was manipulated by the phishers. Fortunately, the university had a practice in place that prevented the transfer of funds to the thieves’ bank account.

We are writing to help prepare you for the fact that two forms of authentication will be required to access USD network and systems. Two-factor authentication at USD will use DUO Security for two-factor authentication; more information can be found at the DUO website: https://duo.com/product/trusted-users/two-factor-authentication

Our introduction of DUO will begin with Oracle E-Business suite during the Fall Term. We tentatively plan for the introduction of DUO for other applications over the winter break and on into 2018. Additional announcements will be forthcoming as an exact schedule is established.

If you have any questions or concerns about these matters, please do not hesitate to contact the ITS Help Desk at 619-260-7900 or help@sandiego.edu.